The Girlfriend

"The Girlfriend" is a short that I had the priveledge of lighting with my faithful band of filmmaking enthusiasts, Team Bloodjet! It's kind of like a sci-fi/horror Twilight Zone type narrative directed by Adam Wingard and written by Evan Katz.

Team Bloodjet! began pre production last summer on this picture that runs about 1/2 hour. Most of it was shot at a friends house over the course of one weekend. The shoot also utilized a modest amount of rear screen projection and a location shoot day at a remote gas station.

The music is put together by a powerful trio: Justine Leigh, Hugo Marx and Producer Kyle McKinnon. It has a definite Ennio Morricone ambience to it and adds a really intriguing punch to this abstract exploration of human (and non-human) realtionships.

Synopsis:
Nic reluctantly brings his new and anxious girlfriend, Mallory, along for a weekend visit with the family. To make matters slightly more awkward, a sneaky, alien assualt on the roadtrip home leaves Nic, and his enticing sister, wondering just exactly who it is that he brought home to meet the parents and who truly is the host of this final visit. Dinner anyone?

Here's a frame from the simulated driving scene in The Girlfriend. That bluesmudge is the effect of a screen being projected onto in the background. This was done, sort of on the fly. We just drove around in Carter's car hanging the DVX out the windo to get streaks of lights passing by the lens. Any motion is going to help sale the illusion. Also wanted to fill that negative space in the windows from moment to moment.

This is Maggies reverse in The Girlfriend. I had an Arri 650 with CTO and spotted onto the cieling so that the "fall off" portion of the spot was playing in the background to fill the space. I also had a dimmer on that lamp. Again the tablecloth was white and bounced light from a 1K dangling precariously above the table with a monstrocity of blackwrap and diffusion clipped to it.

Dinner with the alien

This is the awkward dinner scene where the new girlfriend (who isn't quite herself after a disturbing attack at a pit-stop during the journey home) is introduced to Mom, Dad and Sister. This was lit with a 1K from above with a whole lot of blackwrap and diffusion. The tablecloth was white and helped to bounce, filling in the eye areas and giving a sort of subtle, eerie underlit effect.

Where's my Girlfriend?

This was the last shot at this remote location. I lit this with a 1K w/ CTO at the top of the staircase, a 650W tota w/ 1/8 CTB in the kitchen and another 1K with Full CTP outside the window.

DVX 100 is a winner!

Rebecca (sister) and Nic (the boyfriend) have a heart to heart.This shot is a testament to the DVX 100's friendliness with practical/natural lighting. After a location scout Director Adam Wingard and myself agreed that we could use just the practical 60W lamps that were already present naturally for this scene which I think actually turns out to be one of the more eye catching of the bunch.

Make Up Artist Johnathon Thorton's handy work below

Here is a SMALL taste of some of make up artist: Johnathon Thorton's work (he's out of Montgomery, AL) I tell you what. I don't know that the ligthing does his work justice in this particular instance. When I saw this guy come out of make up I thought was looking at the walking dead. It looked so real I could smell it. Another interesting point on this shot: this was a cut in from a scene shot elsewhere. It cut together convincingly.

The Girlfriend

Stephanie Schnorbus, the Girlfriend in "The Girlfriend" She recieved an A.C.E. at the 2005 Sidewalk Film Festival for her performance.

The Dynamite of an inline Dimmer Switch

This was lit with a combination of a 300W lamp, barn doored with CTO to match the warmer practical bulb which was powered through a dimmer switch. This helped light the front edge of Stephanie's profile and accent her silhoutette to seperate her from the background.

Dimmers are great for bringing out the pre-existing appeal of a room's interior design while staying within the technical parameters of a camera's sensitivities to light indexing. After plugging in an inline dimmer switch to the lamp I could turn the bulb's intensity down to prevent blow out/digital clipping directly around the bulb's position behind Stephanie's face. This allows for the camera to register the texture of the lamp shade and still have the lights' illumination to the wall.

I picked this trick up from Allen Rosen, a veteran Lighting/DP out of Tuscaloosa/Birmingham area who has been lensing professionally for probably over 20 or 30 years. If you ever need a PRO, Allen is a great guy to work with. He keeps real busy with reality television shows. The dimmer switch is something I saw him use a lot for all of these interior design shows.

Into the void

This was just a 1K over hanging via C-stand with CTO and diffusion. Crafted light to fall off at bottom of stairs.

Documemories by Julia Lewis

All the following behind the scenes stills were captured from a DVD that Julia Lewis created that follows the exploits of Team Blodjet!. The project is titled "Documemories" and is really well done. Each project has its own section and a montage of stills and video that were captured during filming. During Bloodjet productions Julia is always sneaking around with still cameras and DV camcorders doing impromptu coverage. She also got stills that were captured on film by Justyne. Thanks Julia!

Here's the most prominent trick I learned from him that night. Poor man's track: hardwood floor and sandbag.

Carter, Kyle and John on scaffolding used to rig light for exterior shots.

Here's Stephanie doing make up for "The Little One"

Stephanie and the babysitter in The Little One, Maggie Henry.

Carter prepping blood works for "See You On the Other Side" Scramble Winner. He built a contraption (on the roof) that enabled spurting abdomniable blood effects during the death of the exgirlfriend.

Very Effective! Stephanie just loved all that corn syrup and hersheys syrup in her drawers! I'm sure.

Carter on set of "The Little One". This was the night I met Carter. He was probably the first Bloodjet I worked with directly. He knows how to "handle the pole" He He

Thank God for "go getter producers"

The burial of the ex in "See You On the Other Side". I lit this with a 1K in Kyle's treehouse. Then put a party blue on it and a branch was rigged for shadow effect. Producers Kyle McKinnon and John White were running all over the place this Scramble weekend. This is the fruit of one of their many labors. They dug this grave while we were finishing up shots of Stephanie dying from stab wounds to the abdomen.

Here's me struggling with the XL1 during the last shots of "See You On the Other Side". At this point Adam had begun editing and handed the camera over to Kyle and myself to finish up this last scene with a Second Unit. This was my 2nd time to shoot with the XL1. The first time was durig the video taping of the removal of a colostamy bag in a shakey mobile home. Just keeping it real! Anyway. I do not like the ergonomics of the XL1. Sorry but focus is a monkey. In my opinion, I came up short on this scene. I made a lot of simple mistakes. I didn't get a good White Balance so the Party Blue registered more like Blacklight making reds go neon orange. Also when I set the lighting I didn't notice that the camera's gain was at plus 6db which introduced digital grain to the shots. So in retrospect I probably needed to push the light closer to the scene and obviously needed to concentrate more on a proper white balance. Thus is the waysof 48 hour movie making competitions. Live and learn.

More of the burial. Producers Kyle McKinnon and John White headed up the creation of this body bag while we were wrapping production on the roof "Kill scene" in Southside.